[Kushina listens attentively, her brow furrowed and her expression intense and biting the inside of her cheek so she doesn't interrupt. He had told her his story and now she had to take that with everything else.

Finally, she looks ahead, angry.]

It's never okay to kill anyone. War is a terrible thing. Which side is really the good one? I never knew. How many families lost a family member because of those wars? How many children lost a father or a mother? How many lost a husband or a wife?

Killing Jiraiya will never be right and I won't ever excuse you for it because like others you succumbed to the pain of war. How is killing another ever justified? What good would it ever do if we're just following the same cycle over and over in a never-ending river of death and suffering!

[Kushina seethes for a moment where she wants to punch something, then takes a deep breath, lets it out, and faces Nagato. She doesn't really give him a moment to explain any further as she carries on.]

You went through a lot of horrible things in your life but you're not the only one, Nagato. Pain won't make people understand each other and I don't really know what will. If Jiraiya-sensei and Minato couldn't figure it out, how in the world could I?

But I know this...

[A soft hand places itself on his knee and her eyes lock with Nagato's rinnegan. Her gaze doesn't waver, if anything it hardens if he turns to face her.]

I still want to be someone you can talk to, just like when I was your sister.